Jeb Bush’s Rush Through the Revolving Door

Jeb Bush stood before supporters in Tallahassee, the Florida capital over which he presided for eight years, and vowed in his first policy speech as a presidential candidate last June to halt the “revolving door” between Congress and K Street.

“We need a president willing to challenge the whole culture in our nation’s capital — and I mean to do it,” Bush vowed at that June event.

But the promise was undercut both by the audience to which Bush spoke — which included numerous lobbyists from his days as governor — and by the intensity with which Bush replenished his personal bank accounts upon leaving office by cashing in on the connections he had made. When it came to Florida, at least, he wasn’t the man who stopped the revolving door — he was a
beneficiary.

After two terms as governor, Bush left office in 2007 with a net worth of just $1.3 million — but within seven years, according to a POLITICO analysis of his financial disclosure forms, he had built it up to $24.89 million. His new wealth was driven by income from consulting work and a dozen board seats on the firms of people with significant business interests before the state while he was governor — including more than $12 million from firms that earned millions in fees when Bush redirected $350 million of Florida public workers’ retirement funds into venture capital investments run by major donors to his brother and his campaigns.